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Well, I need an apraisal of my car so I can get it insured with all the mods, so I thought I'd go with Grandpa's Garage since I've always heard of its name but never heard anyone comment on their service. I booked an appointment with them, and it was for today.

The person who does the apraisals for Granpa's Garage is John D. Cruise as per his business card says. So he showed up, and basically told me to run down what I done to the car really quickly, before he started to take a peak around the car. I started saying engine, tranny etc... and then I said the magic word "full spool rear end"... He started arguing with me that, there is no way that car my car has a full spool and there has to be a differential in the back, he said it would not drive around corners at all, bla bla, so I just said, lets get this over and done with and I will drive it around the block for you to show you how well it can actually turn. Then he started arguing with me about my tranny, how the price that Dynamic Racing is asking for the tranny is too much, and I should have went with an AOD and how someone in town with a full carbon fiber race car with 500hp is running one and has had no problems... Thats when I just laughed within myself because I am pushing a wee bit more then that... But thats not the reason he is there, to know how much power the car is pushing as that has no significance on the value of the car.

So anyhow, I let him do his thing, told him every single thing the car had, showed him what every that can be seen. He took 3-4 picutres, and nothing detailed at all, just snapshots of the front 3/4, interior, engine bay... From what I hear insurance companies specifically want apraisals done and detailed pictures of the car so they can assure that the car has the mods that are listed under the apraisal form.

Then out of my surprise, he told me the apraised value of my car, that is when I was really puzzled. I thought that he'd go and research the prices of the mods, I was thinking wow his brain must be a super mega database of all the prices for every model of cars out there. At that point he asked for the money, and I handed it to him, but then I asked him how he came to the conclusion of this apraisal which he has done, since he can't possibly know the cost of every part. Suddenly the comment some people have made on this forum came to my mind, which was that "some insurance companies don't accept the apraisals done through Granpa's Garage".

His apraisal sheet looked like this... (x amount equals an amount which he had written)

Car X amount
Mods X amount
Wheels and tires X amount.

I just asked how he wrote down the value of the car to what he had written, and he said that is the red book value of the vehicle. I asked him if he has one on him, and he said no he has one at home. Then I expressed him that this was for insurance purposes and not anything else, and I don't think an insurance company would really accept a 15 minute walk around a car without any further research a valid apraisal. Then I told him the value of the car (just the stock car itself) which he had written does not accuretly reflect what it is worth, and showed him the blac kbook value of the car which was quite a bit off an the black book value is actually supposed to be lower then what he has written there since blackbook is the trade in value of a vehicle. He then told me that he can get the car for that price from somewhere in the US, brand new (my car went out of production in 2004), then again I told him how insurance deals with the "fair market value" and the USA is a differnet market, and yet I told him if he can find me the same car for that price (specially brand new, since this car isnt' even made anymore), I'd give him $2000 finders fee on top and I was really serious. Then I just asked him how much it had costed him to come down to my house and do this, and that I wouldn't really need him to go home and print up a bull**** paper for my insurance. At that point he knew what I was onto, gave me back $80 of the $140 I had paid him, and set off.

After talking to a couple of people who had apraisals done by him, how he just asked the people how much he wanted them to write on the apraisal and that is what he apraised it at, and also listed some mods which weren't there to bring up the apraisal value.

To add to all these events he event was trying to convince me that my injectors are not 60# injectors and they are 24# injectors...

This isn't the best write up of the events that happened, but I wanted to share this with all the enthusiasts who are thinking of apraising their vehicles. DO NOT DEAL with GRANPA's GARAGE.

Good to know, I had never heard of them before, but I'll stay away. I think my Dad's firebird is up for another appraisal too. So are you going to try and find someone else to do another appraisal? I could ask my dad who he got to do his last one. I seem to remember them being quite good and professional.

I'll ask my brother but he knows the best appraiser in Ottawa. I went with him when he had to get his e30 done. Guy charges nothing like $50 or something. Has a shop in manotick, embrum can't remmber 25 mins from me house.

So we pull up to his house shop has 4 double car garages and then a monster twin 20' door which opens to his shop which is about 50yards deep. Clean clean clean and all the eye can see is old schoole muscle everywhere. Some done some on rotiseries, some in his paint booth.
I don't know much about that old stuff but I understood when the guy said original hemi's.
He was extremely modest but apparently people send cars from all over t this guy to restore, he was leaving for the states the next day to pick one up (he has a sweet tow rig). Anyways I didn't see what was in the other garages but i beleive some of his cars and his machine shop.

He's also got HotRod mag covers all over the wall and each cover was either one of his cars or one that he rebuilt for a customer.

Who knew a guy like this lived in Ottawa.
If you want the # let me know, it's actually worth it just to see the garage.